The national schools commissioner will retire from the civil service at the end of this academic year, he has announced. Sir David Carter, who has served in the role since February 2016, will step down at the end of August. In a video message recorded to announce his retirement, Carter described “the most amazing, brilliant…

Not a single failing school became an academy less than nine months after an inspection in at least 26 local authorities over the past three years, Schools Week can exclusively reveal. Schools have been unable to secure takeovers due to a lack of sponsors, complicated PFI contracts, and even because regional schools commissioners sent academy…

The headteacher boards have been ignoring post-16 and SEND experts in their decisions on academisation – even though the government promised they would be included. The Department for Education said the boards, which advise the regional schools commissioners on rebrokering and academy conversion, would seek “specific advice” from post-16 and special needs experts, but Schools…

The government has released the latest data showing the performance of the regional school commissioners in their second year of the job. A new set of performance indicators were used that year, and Schools Week has crunched the data to show how the RSCs measured up in each of the categories – and whose has…

The schools commissioners have morphed into a privileged, parallel middle tier with no discussion on role or accountability, argues Jonathan Crossley-Holland When I first submitted a Freedom of Information request to the DFE on the annual cost of the regional schools commissioners, I believed the figures would clearly indicate, in the absence of policy announcements,…

The cost of the national and regional schools commissioners has sky-rocketed, from just £4 million when the roles were established in 2014 to £26 million last year, Schools Week can reveal. The price tag for the commissioners and their teams is expected to rise again for the current financial year, to an estimated £31.2 million,…

As one regional schools commissioner ponders whether a school can voluntarily quit its multi-academy trust, education consultant Simon Foulkes examines the legal issues Schools occasionally leave one multi-academy trust to join another. They can be rebrokered for a number of reasons: failures of educational performance, management and governance, or those responsible for them might ask…

A regional schools commissioner is about to make an “unprecedented” decision on whether a primary school can voluntarily quit its multi-academy trust. Christine Quinn, the RSC for the west Midlands, has stepped into a row between Black Firs Primary, in Congleton, and its trust – the Congleton Multi-Academy trust (Cmat). Five of the school’s governors…

A regional schools commissioner who temporarily stepped in to preside over another area has agreed 21 academy conversions and approved the opening of a new sixth form at a meeting attended by just two other advisors. In April, Tim Coulson, the commissioner for north-east London and the east of England, chaired a headteacher board meeting…

The government has brought local authorities back into the fold as part of new “sub-regional improvement boards” set up to advise school commissioners on struggling schools. The structure, which Schools Week has learned involves four sub-regional improvement boards in each regional schools commissioner area, gives a clue to what education secretary Justine Greening (pictured) had…

The nomination process to elect headteachers and academy trust bosses onto influential boards that advise regional schools commissioners has launched today. The Department for Education has given top academy headteachers two weeks to nominate themselves as candidates if they wish to advise RSCs on school takeovers, according to a new election website. The results of…